Quick Update

Hi all,

Just a quick update. My summer wasn't too busy, I guess blogging really isn't my thing or I guess I'm just really lazy when it comes to writing my blog and reading others' blogs. It's really not that difficult and I actually enjoy it when I do it. I guess I just have difficulty committing myself to writing something at least once a week if not twice a week. I do plan on making that better. What do you guys do to stay consistent on writing your blog?

This Wednesday sees me starting a new contract job as a technical writer. Woo! My first "official" job in which I can call myself a technical writer. :D It feels awesome and for the first time I'm getting paid way more than I feel I deserve to be. Hopefully this is good bye to crap minimum wage jobs. *fingers crossed*

Other than my cousin's wedding back in mid-July, I've basically stayed in state. However, we are taking a late vacation to Florida to visit Kevin, a long time friend from high school, and I'm definitely going to Harry-Freakin-Potter Land. I have made it my mission.

As for writing, "On the Other Side of the Teapot" is taking longer than foreseen. I did not complete or even start June's Camp Nanowrimo. I am however doing August's. I'm not in very deep but I'm hoping that doing the competition while starting a new job will allow me to create habits in which I write every single day again despite what is going on in my life.

So yea. That's the last few months in a nutshell. I have a couple of blogs planned in which I will wax poetic details of a certain cousin's religious nuptials and my exploration of family roots in Springfield, MO. Also, the always inspirational Neil Gaiman's college graduation speech will get it's own spotlight in this month's blogs.

Happy Writing!

~V

Summer Camp Time!

Well CampNaNoWriMo that is. What's that you say? It's a sadistic ritual that I previously have only been practicing once a year that has now become a twice maybe even three times a year event. Basically, it's a fun (for the masochistic) writing encouragement program that provides excellent support to people who are writing a novel or 50k words in one month.

Sounds good right? Until you reread the part that states writing a novel and/or 50,000 words in a month.

That's my plan for the next thirty days or so. Writing 2,000 words a day (basically a chapter) until I finish my half done novel from 2010. I'm excited and motivated to "git 'er done!"

Wish me luck and here's a quick blurb of my novel, "On the Other Side of the Teacup."

Synopsis:

Eleanor, "Rigby" to her friends, finds herself in a magical world after taking the advice and tea mixture from a friendly gypsy working at the Renaissance Festival.

Excerpt:

It was an unusually cloudy and rainy in Arizona the day Eleanor Ashby stumbled upon the chance to find life and magic in a world that had gone stagnant and stale. Like most stories where extraordinary circumstances prey upon seemingly ordinary people, the journey started in the most mundane of ways. Before Eleanor’s, Rigby her preferred nickname, meeting with the Sisters of Fate or at least one particularly meddlesome cousin of the Sisters Three, she must first journey back in time to a place far, far away.

Dear Lord it's the Middle of February Already?!

I think the title explains it all. Where did January go? Between searching for a house and all the variety of social and family engagements, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day or days during the weekend to get the things I had planned on done. I even had three or four different blog topics planned out for my blog. Topics started but never finished. Kind of like all my WIP. :-/ Which leads me into my first planned blog topic: Yearly goals.

Some call them New Year Resolutions. I call them my short and long term goals. Keeps them away from the stigma of well meaning intentions that are quickly forgot soon as March or April rolls around. Here goes-

Writing:

1. Finish my Nano 2011 WIP!!!
2. Edit my Nano 2011 until it glitters and shines. (I might need critique partners, if anyone is interested.)
3. Consider it for publication.(Thinking this will require beta readers for anyone interested.)
4. Polish and write short stories for contests and submissions.
5. Get more freelance jobs.
6. Post a blog once a week. :D

Personal:

1. Get to goal weight. (Cliche, I know but always true)
2. Stay at goal weight. (So I don't have to keep having the above goal!)
3. Run one race a month working to the point where I can do a half marathon. Ultimate goal run the Honolulu Marathon.
4. Find a job that actual gains me skills in areas that I need in order to be a writer.

Writing Group:

1. Find at least one, if not two, serious writers willing to make a commitment to critique and writing stories every other month.
2. Try and create a network of writers in the Phoenix Valley.

So far I've taken small steps to getting these accomplished. I'll do small blog posts on them throughout the year as I complete different parts of the goal and hopefully finish them come December 1st!

That's it for this post. I definitely have more goals/objectives than these but for now, these are things that I really want to accomplish in 2012.

~V